Bitcoin and its underlying technology, the blockchain, have been some of the most remarkable technological trends of the past few years. In this talk, I will give an introduction to what a blockchain is and how Bitcoin works. I will explain concepts like proof of work and Bitcoin mining. I will discuss scalability and privacy issues in Bitcoin. I will also summarize some of the more recent trends in this area of research.

Bio: Prof. Dr. Ali Aydın Selçuk has been a faculty member at TOBB ETÜ, Department of Computer Engineering since 2013. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Middle East Technical University, in 1993, and from Bilkent University, in 1995, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 2001. He worked at RSA Data Security, Novell Networks, and Purdue University, Network Systems Lab, during and after his Ph.D. He was a faculty member at Bilkent University between 2002-2013. Dr. Selçuk has acted as a consultant on cryptography and information security for several government institutions and private corporations in Turkey.